A Message From Our Executive Director

Spring is here and St. James Infirmary has settled into our new location at 730 Polk Street. We have enjoyed partnering with San Francisco Community Health Center, Shanti Project and Project Open Hand at our new location and offering our participants more services. St. James is excited for our 20th year anniversary gala coming up on June 2nd at Terra Gallery. We will be honoring all of our founders at the gala. To become a sponsor or buy a ticket for our anniversary, please see gala information below.

I have served as the Executive Director for St. James Infirmary for one year now. You see, serving as St. James Executive Director is- by far- the most gratifying position I have held in my life and my goal is to expand our services to accommodate all of our participants. St. James is partnering with other agencies so that sex workers can get all the services they need.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to St. James. Together, we will keep the promise that, no sex worker should be without support and services. We count on gifts from folks like you and we look forward to your gifts and to showing you we are good stewards of each dollar given to us.

Celebrating lives saved and improved health for thousands of sex workers and their families in our community for 20 years.

A Message From Our Deputy Director

Hi again, and happy spring! We’ve had a busy and productive few months over here at St. James, and the summer is only going to bring even more excitement.

First, we just kicked off our first round of self-defense classes here in the clinic! They will be taking place every Tuesday night from 5:30-7pm in the Audre Lorde room at 730 Polk, 4th floor. We’re still raising money to be able to fund future cohorts, so please go donate if you can!

In addition to the on-site services we offer, several of our staff were able to represent St. James at national conferences last month. I was fortunate enough to speak on a panel at the US’s pre-eminent anti-trafficking conference, put on by the Freedom Network, about the importance of collaborating with sex workers to put an end to human trafficking rather than treating them as collateral damage in a zero-sum game. In Atlanta, Cary Escovedo and Juba Kalamka of our HIV Services team helped ensure that issues relevant to sex workers, trans people and people of color to the CDC’s annual HIV Conference were kept at the forefront of every conversation.

Thanks to some diligent work by our Community Engagement Coordinator Raul Hernandez, the Bad Date List will re-launch on May 1st. This important tool helps our community keep itself safer by allowing sex workers who experience violence, harassment, or other forms of abuse to share information with other workers so these people can be more easily avoided. If you have information you’d like to submit, you can do so here.

Our outreach team, led by the fearless Celestina Pearl, has recently expanded efforts to get back into the strip clubs, which had been on hiatus for several years as we focused on getting the van up and running. Especially given the difficulties so many dancers in California have faced recently, we want to make sure that these amazing folks know that they are loved and supported! We are also gearing up for some exciting collaborations with our new sister organization, Oakland’s SWISH, (Sex Worker Integrated Support and Health) to ensure that safety information and harm reduction supplies get into the hands of those who need them most.

We are currently in the process of reviewing and revising all of our programs, to ensure that our efforts are meeting the needs of our communities. This is a long-term and ongoing effort, but we know that there are a number of opportunities for growth. We can’t do it without you, so I hope you’ll support our continued evolution by donating your money, time, or skills to our important work. Thank you for standing up for sex workers and the people who love them. We are always honored to have your support.

Policy and Advocacy Update

St. James Infirmary’s policy and advocacy program is off to a promising start. With decriminalization and the right to a self-determined future for people in the sex trades as its vision, advocacy in pursuit of both of those ends has begun in earnest. SJI is currently sponsoring SB233 at the state level, a bill that would (1) prohibit the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution or loitering with intent and (2) provide immunity from prosecution for sex work to sex workers who report crimes of violence. The bill, sponsored by Senator Scott Weiner, has the support of sex work advocates across the state. If passed into law, St. James will serve as a model for policy advocates nationwide.

In addition to the work on SB233, SJI has been meeting with CA organizations in an effort to establish a statewide decriminalization strategy. To further these efforts, SJI’s policy program is raising funds to start a leadership development program that will, following an assessment of the needs of sex workers in the state, seek to address those needs via a comprehensive training and education program. The goal is to provide sex workers with the opportunity to pursue the future they choose by giving them the tools they identify as necessary. Alongside the leadership program, SJI will be conducting a suite of trainings to sex workers and their advocates. Finally, SJI is attending conferences and convenings across the country to share information and best practices.

Bad Date List

Hi Community,

St. James Infirmary’s Bad Date List is back up! The Bad Date List is a harm reduction tool which allows sex workers who have experienced a bad date to share the perpetrator’s information with other workers. We as an organization are committed to keeping our community safe. A "Bad Date" may be any person who threatens, behaves violently towards, robs, extorts, or engages in any behavior that violates the agreed upon terms and boundaries of the exchange; this also includes any harm experienced at the hands of the police.

If you know a sex worker who has experienced a bad date, please direct them here to report it.

The Bad Date List page will be updated as we receive reports. Sex workers can receive a monthly printout of the bad date list from our outreach team or from a staff at SJI. If you would like to receive a pdf copy to print and distribute in your location, please contact the community engagement coordinator at community@stjamesinfirmary.org.

To support sex workers in filing a report, you can direct them to our page or have them call our line, 415-554-8494, and one of our staff members can support them in filling a report

Sex workers can also come to our Wednesday night clinic, at 730 Polk St. 4th floor from 6:00pm-8:30pm and ask to speak to a peer counselor; our peer counselors can support sex workers in filling out a form and provide an empathic ear through this difficult time.

The Bad Date List is a collection of reports provided for by the community. We want to thank anyone, for their strength and power, who submits a report to keep our community safe.